Twitter Is A Corporate API

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Dave Winer on Twitter’s pseudo warning to 3rd-party clients:

Conclusion – corporate APIs are good for the corporations that own them, and bad for everyone else. I would be reluctant to develop on any corporate API unless I was prepared to have my work completely deleted or obviated or usurped by the platform vendor. You really don’t have any power. However it’s impossible to avoid them. But try to. And don’t be a crybaby when you get hurt.

This falls in line with an earlier piece about Twitter shifting toward a more locked down API in favor of traditional advertising. I think Winer is too doom-and-gloom, but the heart of his argument is spot-on.